Dates Traveled: Various times between September-December 2002; April-May 2003; Few days in December 2005
(I’d also traveled here in June 1999, but that trip is without details)

November, after returning from Myanmar

Again I flew Biman Bangladesh Airlines, so had an onscreen prayer to Allah, complete with views of mosques, before taking off. I also heard many sentences from the chief stewardess littered with the word, ‘Inshallah’ - essentially, “God willing”, as in, “We’ll be landing, inshallah, in Bangkok in a few minutes…” Rather than putting me at ease, those comments actually make me more tense. My mind hears it as, “This plane is about to fall apart around us, but, God willing, we’ll get this sucker on the ground.”

Sukothai

My few days back in Bangkok were all about wading through 4-weeks of e-mails, since I couldn’t check them in Myanmar. I was also able to meet up with some other travel friends to compare stories over drinks, before I hopped a train for the 6 1/2 hour train trip north to Phitsanulok, followed by the 1-hour bus to the ancient city of Sukothai. Sukothai was Thailand’s first capital - from 1257-1379, and I spent an enjoyable afternoon riding a bike among the ruins.

Loi Krathong Festival in Chiang Mai

I then proceeded by bus the 6 hours to Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai offers many things to the traveler - Thai cooking classes, hill tribe treks, massage courses, meditation courses, etc., so it’s always been a traveler’s hangout, and has that feel to it. It’s a good city to wander around - the old city is surrounded on all sides by a moat, and there is a lively night market scene.

While in Chiang Mai I witnessed Loi Krathong, a major festival of the region. There were long processions of performers through the street, but the major event was to bundle flowers into a little ‘raft’, complete with candle and incense sticks. The candle was lit, and the bundle was set adrift on the river to float away one’s sins. There were also homemade hot-air balloons. These were about 4′ long by 2′ in diameter, with a candle mounted on a cross-brace at the hoop end. Once there was enough hot air created by the candle, the balloon would gently, but certainly not quietly, lift off. I say not quietly, because firecrackers were invariably attached, so it was a noisy sendoff. The balloons reached great heights (planes had been warned to be aware of the balloons in the air space), and with their candles continuing to burn, the sky looked like it had many new constellations of flame-colored stars. Walking the streets soon became the best entertainment. It was elbow-to-elbow, but young Thai’s would light firecrackers and throw them into a crowd. That certainly added a bit of excitement. At times you’d be ready to take a step and the ground in front of you would explode. It sounded like a war zone with the various firecrackers, and then you’d attempt to walk across an exposed bridge, only to have people on the banks aiming bottle rockets at you. Made you feel like you were part of one of those carnival shooting games.

I next took a bus up to the Thai border town of Chiang Khong and crossed into Laos

Previous Trip

I’d also visited Thailand back in June of 1999. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to my journal for those travels, and so they’re not covered in this travelogue. On that trip I visited Koh Samui, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and Mae Hong Son.